A Family Day at the Beach
by Jellico
Summary: Series prequel. This story is a glimpse into the type of parents Dan and Deb might have been, if they had gained full custody of Lucas when the boys were very young.


The high was barely seventy-three degrees, and it was cloudy almost as much as it was sunny, but that made no difference to Dan Scott. An hour after lunch on the back deck of his weekend beach house in Wilmington, he sat on one of the wicker chairs with the palms of both hands covered in zinc oxide. He wasn't having much luck applying it evenly to the scrunched up face of his five-year-old son, but preventing a sunburn is a lot easier than treating one, so he persevered.

As the recipient of Dan's attentions, Lucas wasn't the least bit appreciative. Perfectly comfortable in the open air without a stitch of clothing on (and no icky suncream either!), the little boy shifted from bare foot to bare foot and kept whipping his head to the right, desperate to keep tabs on his brother. Nathan wasn't wearing anything more than he was, but he'd been playing on the beach for at least three whole minutes now and he was having oodles of fun without him. It wasn't fair that Nathan always got gooped up first just 'cause he was three months younger!

"Hurry, Daddy!"

For the tenth time in as many seconds, Dan forced Luke's head to face front again. "Stand still, son."

"But you gotta hurry up 'cause Nathan's been out there forever! He's gonna get the best sand and there won't be any left for me!"

"Well, if you'd stop moving, I could get this done." Dan chuckled at the notion of someone having the "best" sand on a beach as large as theirs while he finished with Luke's face and got started on his upper body. "You know, I wouldn't have to put so much of this sunblock on you _or_ your brother, if you two would just put on a shirt and some shorts like other kids."

Lucas had been watching Nathan jealously, but now he turned back to scowl at his father. "No way, Daddy! Sand is always 'n always going up our shirts and scratching our backs. We don't like it!"

"And swim trunks? What's so wrong with sporting a pair of those when everyone else can wear them without a problem?"

"Same thing," Lucas insisted stubbornly. "The sand goes inside our suits and then it itches up our butts. If we're not wearing trunks, we can just squat in the water for a second and get it out much faster."

Dan knew exactly what his father would say to that, if he were here within earshot of his grandson. He'd bark that two big boys six weeks into kindergarten were far too old to be running around naked like this, and he'd also say that Dan and Deb were lax parents to permit it as long as they had. It was obviously a good thing then that Royal Scott wasn't here since Deb clearly didn't agree.

As she joined Dan and Lucas on the back deck and overheard her step-son talking, she smiled down at him. "That's a very good explanation, honey, and I bet no one can argue with that, can they?

"No way, Mom!"

Dan smirked and shook at his head at the oddball logic of his son. He turned Lucas to the side so you could slather SFP-45 all over the boy's lower half, then suddenly poked a greasy bottom cheek.

"Well, what if a shark swims up to you and bites you between these round things here?"

Lucas had certainly never thought of _that_. His eyes grew wide and frightened as he stood stock-still for a second and looked up at Deb, seeking reassurance. "Mommy, the water's not very deep where me and Nate play, so that could never happen, right? The sharks are too big to come get us there?"

"That's right, honey, and sharks never swim around here anyway. Daddy was just teasing you."

Deb gave Lucas a comforting smile and smoothed the blond hair on his head, a calm and loving gesture that was exactly what the five-year-old needed to feel better. When Lucas turned back to Dan with a frown of disapproval over being teased, Deb shot Dan the same stern look for scaring their son like that.

A grinning Dan refused to apologize. He winked at Lucas to confirm that he really had been joking and continued to apply sunblock to the boy's sensitive skin. The job he was doing was terrible however, no doubt due at least in part to Luke's near non-stop squirming, but still, that was no excuse. Deb tapped her husband on the shoulder and motioned for him to get out of the chair so she could sit instead.

"Here, let me take over. You've missed a hundred spots."

Immediately Lucas began to whine while his parents switched places, well aware that his stepmother would be far more thorough than his father.

"Aw, Mo-om, I want Daddy to do it! He was almost finished and Nate's waiting for me!"

"Uh-uh, none of that, young man. Stand still so I can get this done."

Lucas stomped his foot and started to wind himself up, but a firm swat on the butt from Dan warned him to stop it right now. Lucas hadn't been living for years and years with his father like his younger brother had been, but he still understood the look he was being given. Boys old enough to go to school aren't allowed to throw tantrums anymore; Daddy had told him and Nathan that last month when they tried. Lucas remembered the lecture real well now that his poor bottom was stinging, so he pouted and rubbed the spot that had just received a spank, but he didn't dare say anything further while his shoulders, chest and back got a second, much thicker coating. Shortly thereafter Dan went inside, but Lucas still didn't take advantage of his absence to start whining again, or worse yet, to start crying outright and struggling away from Deb. If his dad overheard him, he would get more than a single spank, he knew. He would get a full spank _ing_ and he might even get sent to his room too. What if Daddy made him stay there for the whole afternoon? The man had done just that the last time his firstborn had pitched a full-scale fit over not wanting to get sunscreened, and it had been the longest, most lonesome afternoon ever. A spanking was bad but a time-out that severe was worse – way _, way_ worse. Without Nathan to keep him company, Lucas honestly couldn't think of anything more horrible than getting banished upstairs again for hours on end, so he reminded himself not to complain and to be a very good boy every time he felt himself becoming impatient.

He gave Deb his left foot so she could re-do his thighs, his knees, his calves and his ankles, and then he switched feet the second she told him to, hoping to hurry things along. After that, he didn't think there could possibly be anywhere else that his dad had missed the first time, but Deb turned him around after his legs were completed and replaced the sunblock that a certain father had slapped off a minute ago.

She had to be done now, right?

"Okay, little boy." Deb turned him to face her one more time and put a few final dabs on his nose. She eyed him critically a moment then capped the jar in her lap. "If you put your hat on, you can go have fun with Nathan."

Lucas didn't need another invitation. He snatched up his baseball cap, which had been waiting for him all this time on the glass table, and then he slapped it on his head and took off running down their private dock. "Thanks, Mommy!" he yelled over his shoulder. "See you later!"

"Stay with your brother, okay?" Deb called after him. "And both of you play where Daddy and I can see you!"

"We will!"

Deb watched Lucas sprint toward Nathan until he reached him, and then she scanned the beach to check out who else was around. No strangers were ambling along the shore today, and the neighbors were perfectly safe – they were used to seeing the young Scott brothers outside in the all-together when the weather was warm – but still. One couldn't be too cautious these days, so Deb waited until Dan came back to replace her before she went indoors to wash her hands. When she returned, now holding a glass of iced tea, she smiled softly and lingered between the sliding glass doors, watching her sons busily digging sand pits by the water's edge and giving each other orders.

Lounging in one of the deck chairs with his feet up and a cold beer in his hand, Dan studied his wife's profile curiously. He waited for Deb to say something, and when she didn't, he spoke up himself. "Hey, what're you thinking?"

Deb glanced over at him then continued to watch their boys, still smiling. "Oh, nothing. I'm just happy, that's all."

Dan nodded wisely, suddenly knowing exactly what she was thinking. "You never believed we'd get to this point with Lucas, did you?"

Deb's smile faltered but she said nothing as her mind turned back automatically to that dark period fourteen months ago. She didn't think she would ever forget the withdrawn little boy that Lucas had been when Dan had first brought him home after Keith's and Karen's funeral. Even with therapy, it had taken over a hundred and eighty days for Lucas to speak to anyone, and then God, what foul language he had used, what awful words he had uttered! His muteness had almost been preferable to the tearful and angry child he'd become after that, but permission to grieve for his dead mother and his beloved uncle/step-father for as long as he needed to had eventually turned him around by Nathan's birthday – that along with patience and love, in addition to one pushy little brother!

As Deb's smile came back in stages, remembering how determined Nathan had been to get his new sibling to play basketball with him, _and_ Nintendo, _and_ Walkie-Talkies, _and_ a hundred other games, Dan prompted her for an answer to his question.

"Well, Deb? Did you believe it?"

Deb looked at him somewhat ashamed, her smile growing a bit wistful. "Honestly, Dan? No. No, I didn't."

"Well, I knew we'd get to this point," Dan replied confidently. "I knew Lucas would come around. He's my son, after all. He just needed time."

"Nearly a year," Deb reminded him, "a year that was absolute torture for all of us. Thank God you and your mother figured out what he needed to get through it all because I sure had no clue and that doctor we kept sending him to was no help at all. I was ready to give up." Deb grew pensive as she eased into the wicker loveseat a few feet away, thinking of the glowing couple she'd seen in town several times but had never once dared to approach. "It's really no wonder Lucas missed Karen and Keith so much when they were gone. They were obviously in love with each other, so they must have been great parents to him, and the way they were killed, so-so brutally right before their anniversary. It was such a tragedy, don't you thi—"

"Uh, no," Dan interrupted, looking disgusted. "It wasn't a tragedy, Deb. It was justice."

"What?!"

"Don't look so shocked, Deb. You heard me the first time, but I'll say it again. I'm glad they died."

"Dan! How could you say that?!"

Dan's reply was to bellow for his firstborn. "LUCAS! LUCAS, COME HERE, SON!"

The son in question looked up from his perch in the wet sand beside Nathan, then scrambled to his feet and ran over. Dan's arms were open to him, so without hesitation, Lucas went straight into them and accepted a hug, although he had no idea why he was getting one out of the blue like this.

Dan lifted him onto his lap and held him close for almost a minute before he set him back down. A tiny clump of wet sand was clinging persistently to Luke's belly-button, so Dan brushed it off gently before it could worm its way deeper inside and cause irritation. A box of anti-bacterial wipes always sat on the glass table outside whenever the boys were playing on the beach, so Dan removed one now then set to work, wiping the area completely clean before adding a touch of sunblock.

Like the five-year-old boy he was, Lucas didn't think anything of this. After a full summer and more of running around outside without a shirt, he was used to stuff getting stuck to him and having his new parents wash it off on the spot. Pesky sand was nothing new, but getting interrupted while he was playing just to get a hug and a squeeze was really kind of strange. He tapped Dan on the shoulder.

"Daddy?" he asked curiously. "Did you need me for something?"

"No, not a thing." Dan finished up then pressed a kiss to the top of his baseball cap. "I just wanted to tell you that I love you."

Lucas beamed. "I love you too. Can I go back to Nate now?"

Dan chuckled at his one-track mind and sent him on his way. The moment Lucas was gone and Dan had brushed off his own clothes, which were sandy now too from the extended hug he had given his son, he turned back to Deb, his expression deadly serious.

"You see that, Deb? That wouldn't have happened if Keith and Karen were still around. Nathan wouldn't have a brother to play with, and you and I wouldn't have my firstborn son living under our roof for any length of time. Hell, Lucas wouldn't even know me."

"But Dan—"

"Remember when I tried to share custody? Remember how fast – and how loudly – Karen rejected that simple request? Oh, and let's not forget Keith, shall we, who everyone thinks was some kind of saint for marrying her. More than once I asked my so-called brother to pass by with Lucas and let me spend some time with him, but what did he tell me over and over again? No, always no. He helped Karen to keep my son away from me, Deb; he deserved to die. They both did."

Deb stood up to head indoors, disappointment in her spouse etched in every line on her face. "Well, whatever you do, don't let Lucas overhear you say you're glad they're dead. He doesn't remember them as well as he used to, Dan, but he still cherishes their memory, and he would never forgive you for saying a thing like that. He wouldn't forget it either."

Dan watched Deb turn her back on him and go inside. As he returned his gaze to his firstborn son earnestly digging for seashells with Nathan, he knew what Deb had just said was true, and it pissed him off to no end. But he didn't blame Lucas for that. Oh no. He blamed Keith and especially Karen. No son should deem his father unforgivable no matter what he said or did. For there to be something that Dan could do that would _make_ him unforgivable in Luke's eyes, well, that could only come from not forging a tight enough bond right from the start.

And who exactly had prevented them from doing that?

Keith and Karen.

But Dan had won in the end. Now he had the best of everything.

Reminding himself of this, Dan forced him to relax as he kept an eye on his two sons playing together on the beach. Soon enough he forgot his first love and his deceased brother completely. He watched with a smirk as Nathan filled a bucket with sand then dumped it without warning on his older brother's head, and then Dan chuckled to himself as Lucas promptly tackled Nathan in retaliation, then sat on him and pinned his arms to the ground. Nathan bucked and rolled until Lucas was the one on his back, but Lucas wasn't about to stand for that, and the flip-switching continued just as it had last weekend when the boys had been playing (and then fighting) with one of the neighbor's kids three houses down. Today's match was a draw and forgotten entirely when a crab scuttling nearby caught their attention and got both brothers focused on it instead of each other, but draw or not, the lesson learned was obvious.

The Scott boys were growing up strong and took no guff from anyone, not even each other.

Dan loved it!

He let Deb do whatever she needed to in the house while he proudly watched his boys for the rest of the afternoon, more than happy to supervise the sons he alone had sired. Remembering the things his own mother used to do for him on days like today, Dan called Nathan and Lucas over to him periodically so their sunscreen could be reapplied and sand could be removed time and again from sensitive places. He also made sure they drank plenty of water, and ate watermelon or cantaloupe, to stay hydrated against the heat, and he ordered them back in front of the house to play whenever they wandered too far down the beach.

Eventually, though, it was the hour for little boys to leave their toys behind and to come indoors for the night. Dan rolled up the legs of his cargo pants and stepped out of his sandals before he strolled down the dock. As he walked, he called to the boys to start washing off the worst of the sand in the ocean, so they would be fit to come inside.

Whether it was a devil on his shoulder telling him what to do or some other naughty impulse, Dan didn't know, but suddenly, Nathan looked at him coming, then turned to his brother and shoved him to the ground. A second later, Nathan was off and running.

"You're it!" he shouted gleefully over his shoulder.

Lucas scrambled to his feet and gave chase. "I'm gonna get you, Nate!"

Dan's happy mood vanished in an instant. "NATHAN! LUCAS! GET BACK HERE!"

Lucas paused and turned back briefly at least, but when he saw his little brother still charging full-tilt up the beach, his competitive drive overrode his common sense. He ran after a giggling Nathan with Dan now angrily pursuing them both.

With his longer stride, it didn't take Dan more than a minute to catch his boys, and when he did, he channeled Royal Scott by giving them each a good, solid whack on their fannies right where they stood. Nathan got it first _and_ hardest, but Lucas didn't get off lightly either from the way his hips shot forward and he yelped. Needless to say, both sons understood they shouldn't have run away from Daddy. With Nathan's eyes flooding and Luke's chin wobbling as well, Dan snatched up their hands and marched them home. The moment they reached their private stretch of sand, he knocked the hats off their heads, picked them up one at a time, and then tossed them straight into the cold ocean water.

To Lucas, it was a further lesson in obedience, but to Nathan, it wasn't anything of the kind. It was exhilarating!

Completely recovered from his spank of a minute ago, he stood up sputtering and trembling from the chill but also deliriously happy.

"Th-Throw me again, D-Daddy! Please!"

Dan couldn't believe it, and frankly, neither could Lucas. The five-year-old looked from his father to his brother, and shivered while rubbing his still-stinging bottom, convinced that Nathan was about to get in even bigger trouble now.

Dan was tempted to prove Lucas right, but Nathan kept begging him, and there was simply no denying the younger of his two sons when the little mischief-maker looked up at him that way. Smiling against his will, Dan picked him up, swung him around, and then tossed him back into the water, doing it again and again when Nathan just couldn't get enough. In the end, Nathan got eight dunks to his older brother's one, but Lucas was just fine with that. He loved the beach, but he wasn't a fan of frigid temperatures like Nathan, so he stood where he was while his kooky kid brother got turn after turn.

Much too soon for Nathan his fun came to end, and he found himself picked up by his father and carried dripping up the dock towards the house with Lucas on their father's other hip. Dan set them down just outside the sliding doors, then wrapped them up in thick beach towels and went back to fetch their toys and their hats. When he returned, his sons were still waiting for him, their towels clutched tightly around their shoulders.

"We're h-hungry." Nathan declared through chattering teeth. "Is it s-supper-time now, Daddy?"

"No, it's bath-time and _then_ supper-time."

"Awww! But we j-just had a bath!"

"Yeah," Lucas chimed in. "In the o-ocean!

"Did you use soap?" Dan asked, taking a minute to brush the sand and water off his own feet.

"N-No, but —"

"Did you wash your hair?"

"N-No, but Daddy, we —"

"Then it wasn't a bath. You boys know the rule whenever you play on the beach."

The two youngsters protested, but there was no changing the mind of their six-foot-two father. Besides, they did know the rule. They didn't like it, but they knew it.

Herded into the house and up the stairs, they took turns complaining for all of one minute more before they suddenly decided to pretend their towels were Superman capes and began 'flying' side by side up and down the hallway. Dan called for Deb then plugged the drain in the boys' bathtub, started the taps and added a long squirt of Mr. Bubble. After that, he got Lucas and Nathan corralled, supervised their pee and plunked them both into the tub, but that was it. Deb came upstairs and took over next so he could change his clothes and get started on supper, and as Dan stir-fried vegetables mixed with sweet and sour chicken cutlets, he kept his ears tuned to the goings-on upstairs. Sometimes, a full day in the sun was too much for the boys, and they wouldn't stand still for a good soaping from their mother, never mind getting their hair shampooed, so it was always Dan's job to listen out during bath-time and to come to Deb's rescue if needed. At this time of day, two energetic sons were often more than she could handle.

Today, though, Deb handled them just fine.

Within the hour, two squeaky clean little boys were holding her hands and tromping happily down the stairs on either side of her, dressed in a matching pair of basketball-themed footie pajamas. With steaming and delicious-smelling food already waiting for them in the dining room, the boys let go of Deb and ran to the table, exclaiming loudly how much they were starving. Deb and Dan were hungry too by now, so the salad was given one last toss, glasses were filled quickly – two with milk and two with wine – and then the Scott family of four sat down to eat.

By dessert, Lucas and Nathan were clearly ready for bed.

Normally, they wouldn't turn in for another hour, but today at barely six-thirty, eyelids were drooping and food was forgetting to be chewed. Like most five-year-olds, however, the boys would have forced themselves awake and protested mightily if anyone had dared to hint that they were in need of sleep, so with plenty of experience in this area, neither Dan nor Deb tried to suggest an evil, evil thing like "early bedtime". They carried the boys from the table before they fell out of their chairs, and then they helped them to brush their teeth. After that, they simply followed the beach house ritual they had developed the previous year when their family had grown from three people to four. They congregated on the back deck to listen to the ocean waves with Deb cuddling Nathan in her arms and Lucas curled up on Dan's lap.

As sleepy as he was, though, tonight, Nathan had other ideas.

He scowled as he watched Dan sit in the cushy swing and cradle Lucas on his right knee as usual, hugging him close like he used to do with Nathan alone once upon a time. The five-year-old watched jealously as Dan patted Luke's back and began to rock him, but when Dan leaned down to plant a kiss on Luke's head that was the last straw for Nathan. Without warning, he pushed away from Deb, then slid down from her lap and marched over to his father and brother. Before Dan could react, Nathan reached out and shoved Lucas as hard as he could in the shoulder.

"Get off!"

Lucas had already begun to doze, but that woke him straight up. He reached out and pushed Nathan back, more than ready to defend himself. "Stop it!"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Dan interrupted. "What's going on here?"

"It's not fair!" Nathan complained, all of a sudden in tears. "Luke is always s-sitting on your lap before bedtime, Daddy, and _I_ want to! It's my turn! _I_ w-want to!"

"Nathan, honey, come back to Mommy," Deb soothed. "You're overtired and you–"

"I am NOT overtired!" Nathan shouted and scrubbed at the moisture flooding his eyes. "I just w-wanna sit where Lucas is!"

"Well, you can't!" Lucas told him, cranky and out of sorts now himself. "This is MY spot and I'm not giving it to you, ya big baby!"

Nathan's fists flew out again to strike blindly at his brother, but before things could escalate, Dan scooped him up with his left arm and settled him on his left knee, making sure to hug him just as closely as he was hugging Lucas. "Your brother's already sitting there so why don't settle down here instead. That's why I have two knees, didn't you know that, son?"

"I don't _wanna_ sit h _-_ here!" Nathan fussed and struggled and pointed at his brother. "I wanna s-sit _there_ , Daddy! I w-want Lucas to _m-move_!"

Dan didn't reply, showing more patience at age twenty-four that many fathers would ten years older. He used his feet to push the swing back into a calming rhythm and let Nathan cry it out, which he suspected wouldn't take more than thirty seconds. He was right. In no time at all, Nathan's wailing died down to a whimper and then ceased altogether, his small chest hitching once more before settling permanently. On the opposite knee, Lucas had gone back to relaxing against his father. He was vaguely upset that Nathan had pushed him and tried to start a fight, but he was also far too exhausted to wonder about it in any depth. He slipped his right thumb into his mouth and sucked on it, watching his brother drowsily for perhaps five seconds more, and then that was it for him too. He was down for the count.

Above them, Dan had never felt so content.

He knew lots of people in Tree Hill still talked about him in whispers for abandoning Karen and getting two girls pregnant while he was still in his teens, but he didn't regret his choices anymore, and he never planned to again.

He gazed down at his sleeping sons and felt a peace he knew in his soul he never would have felt if Karen was still alive and keeping Lucas from him. He had fathered two sons; he should have two sons, and he did now, thanks to fate. No matter what others thought, he had always wanted Lucas in his life, and right here in this moment, with both Lucas and Nathan in his arms, he knew this was where his life was always supposed to lead.

There were just a few more things missing.

On the loveseat, Deb seemed to share his reflective mood as she decided to join him on the swing and ease Nathan into her arms. While they rocked together and held their sons, they talked quietly about their future as well as their past, and about the size of the family they now had.

Deb leaned against him and said she was satisfied with just the four of them; after all, the boys had finally started school and that was a pretty big milestone. She didn't really want to go back to diapers and teething and sleepless nights, did Dan? Plus, if they stopped now, they would still be relatively young when the boys were grown. Why re-start the clock?

Deb's points were all valid, but Dan didn't think that should stop them from aiming for another son ... or maybe even a daughter ... or even better still, one daughter mixed with many more sons. To him, that was precisely what was missing. Deb may be satisfied with only two kids, but Dan Scott was meant to have more. He needed a much bigger family. He needed to prove to everyone in Tree Hill that his early mistakes weren't anything of the kind and that each one of his children was planned and expected. Besides, the more sons he had, the greater his chances to turn at least one of them into the college basketball star he had never become and then a first round draft pick in the NBA.

Deb wasn't ready to hear that, though, so Dan kept these thoughts to himself and simply draped his free arm around her shoulders. As he hugged Lucas closer to him on his other side and remembered the triumph he felt when he had officially won custody, he was more than confident that his firstborn son would have at least three more siblings by the age of twelve. He had to. If history had proven anything so far, it was that Dan Scott always got his way in the end.

Over Deb's head, Dan looked out at the ocean waves and planned his family's future with a smile...


End file.
